Ruth Chepngetich has become the first woman to run a marathon in under 2hr 10 min, shattering the previous world record by almost two minutes in one of the most exceptional distance-running feats ever.
The 30-year-old Kenyan immediately dedicated the victory to her compatriot Kelvin Kiptum, who became the first man to clock under 2hr 1min in the same race exactly a year ago before dying in a car accident in February.
The 2:10 barrier was long considered unbreakable for a woman – and her finishing time of 2:09:56 is more than five minutes quicker than Paula Radcliffe’s 2003 world record that stood for 16 years.
It has also only ever been bettered by 22 British men.
This was Chepngetich’s third win in the Chicago Marathon and, such was her dominance, she finished almost eight minutes clear of Ethiopia’s Sutume Kebede and broke her personal best by almost five minutes.
“It’s a time we can’t really comprehend – a time we would never have thought was possible,” said Britain’s Jo Pavey, the former European 10,000m champion who was commentating on the race for Eurosport.
Like Kiptum, Chepngetich was also wearing the Nike Alphafly 3 ‘super shoe’ in her bid to surpass the 2:11:53 world record set by Ethiopia’s Tigst Assefa in Berlin last year in a pair of £400 Adidas Pro Evo 1. Assefa’s win sparked a new phase in the battle of the carbon-plated road trainers that have transformed long-distance running, but Nike again now has both world records. The Alphafly 3s – with their air-bubble and ZoomX foam – went on general sale earlier in the year for £284.99.
“This world record I’m dedicating to Kelvin Kiptum,” Chepngetich said. “I’m so happy. I don’t know how to explain. The world record is my dream, that has now come true. I fought a lot thinking about the world record and now I’ve fulfilled it. I’m so grateful. This year the weather was perfect and I prepared well. The world record was on my mind.”
Another Kenyan, John Korir, won Sunday’s men’s race in 2:02:43 to set the sixth-fastest marathon time in history.
Kiptum ran 2:00:35 to set the men’s world record last year. Eliud Kipchoge, the previous men’s world-record holder, famously ran under two hours in a specially paced race in Vienna in 2019, but that does not count as an official time.
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